Polio nearly eradicated, according to Gates Foundation annual report

SEATTLE — Thursday's annual report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation illustrates progress toward a world without infectious diseases, including the eradication of Polio.

The foundation reported 15 cases of Polio worldwide in 2017, compared with more than 350,000 nearly 20 years ago. Foundation CEO Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann sees it is a watershed moment in global health.

"Polio was a real threat in low resource countries," she told KIRO 7's Dave Wagner. "That's 15 cases worldwide, and we are on the way to zero."

It is progress toward a World Health Organization goal to eradicate Polio by the end of 2018. To prepare for a Polio-free future, the Gates Foundation is calling for more community centers and immunization posts in high-risk areas. Thousands of female health workers are also needed to build trust with families in traditional societies where men cannot enter other people's homes or interact with mothers.

Dr. Desmond-Hellmann cites the "miracle power" of vaccines, in the elimination of infectious diseases like polio, but she admits there are still people in the world's poorest countries without access to those life-saving drugs.

"We must do better for the people in the world who have the least access and the lowest incomes," she said.

The greatest number of women in history now have access to contraceptives, but an estimated 214 million still do not receive the information and supplies they want and need. In 2017, the foundation committed $375 million to family planning resources, a 60 percent increase from the year before. Globally, $2.5 billion was pledged to better serve the largest ever generation of adolescents, and the hardest-to-reach women and girls.

Global health outreach has become more difficult during the Trump administration, according to Desmond-Hellmann.

"That kind of anti-science dialogue, the political dialogue, is harmful to what we care about most," Dr. Desmond-Hellmann said. "I would say that the more nationalistic [rhetoric] isn't something the Gates Foundation agrees with. We think globally, so our ability to think globally and to talk about global issues is more challenging during the Trump administration."

She added that national security depends on the U.S. being ready for a global disease threat. Pandemics are not bound by any one nation's border, she said.

The Gates Foundation is the world's richest philanthropy. It is funded primarily from the wealth of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda. Warren Buffett is also a major contributor. The foundation receives smaller, unsolicited donations as well.

"We aren't partisan. We can work with anybody," Dr. Desmond-Hellmann said. "What we are is absolutely passionate about the causes we care about. We're for foreign aid. We're for public education."

You can watch KIRO 7's interview with Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann Thursday on KIRO 7 News from 4:30 to 7 a.m. and at 5 and 7 p.m.

Cox Media Group